The $20 (or $200) we get paid for writing an online article is just the start. You also get the following benefits (in no particular order):

- Continued long-tail payouts (as you allude to)

- Building audience that will increase payouts for later articles

- Building expertise that lets you command higher prices for content you sell on other sites

- Diversifying your income sources

- Investing the extra income increases your long-term benefit from every dollar earned here

However, if you're writing on someone else's platform, such as Medium, your sense of control is false. The platform owner can (and have multiple times) changed their distribution alogrithms, what they pay for, and how much they pay.

They could, if they chose, stop paying altogether and we'd have no recourse.